I had been a pescetarian for several months before becoming vegetarian. I have been a vegetarian for over a year now and I am slowly heading in the direction of a raw vegan food diet. I would love to go fully raw. Raw diet is so rich, vibrant, colourful and fresh. This is what I need at the moment. Right now, I am eliminating certain products from my diet: butter and bread spread, oil, eggs, diary, pasta, flour, sugar, coffee. Step by step I will be eliminating my favourite cooked meals from my menu, for example spinach and mushroom tortellinis, cooked potatoes with fried onion, battered oyster mushrooms with cheese rolls, panckakes with apples. I want to estalbish a new, healthy and raw eating routine. I am taking baby steps and I would like to keep you informed on my progress. I think that writing about my new adventure on my blog is a very motivational thing. It helps me to stay focused and determined.
poniedziałek, 6 listopada 2017
sobota, 28 października 2017
Is anorexia the outcome of cultural pressure and the product of contemporary beauty trends?
**********************
The
fact that media words and images appeal to people’s self-perception,
self-esteem, and their sense of aesthetics is undeniable. Cultural pressure to
be thin which is put on especially young women is ubiquitous nowadays. It is
mass media who promote contemporary patterns of beauty, demanding almost
disproportionate slimness. It is unquestionable that the quality of being slim is
associated with attractiveness, however the majority of current TV commercials,
fashion magazines and fashion shows display the models who are conspicuously
underweight, sometimes even emaciated. (According to Health magazine, April 2002, 32% of female TV network characters
are underweight).[1] Every female magazine
features the newest and “miraculous” diets, advices on how to lose unwanted
kilograms and to maintain “ideal figure” as long as possible. Consequently, a
lot of people are brainwashed into believing that being slim is a pass to the world
of happiness, success and beauty. At the same time those who are particularly
vulnerable find themselves in insurmountable clash between the way they look like,
and the model of body build which is being constantly propagated. As a result,
more and more women, as well as men, struggle to attain perfect body image
launched by the mass media culture. It often happens, however, that their
desperate striving for appointed goal slipps out of control and that they fall
prey to an eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia. Should it be
understood then, that anorexia is relatively recent disorder appearing in
response to the latest craving for thinness and to the current cultural demands
promoted via press and television?
In the next parts of my essay I
shall try to examine different sources, and to probe into the history of the
disorder, in order to give answer to the aforementioned questions and thus to
dispel certain misconception about the disease. At the beginning however, I
would like to concentrate on the nature of anorexia itself by giving its short
explanation. In crude terms anorexia can be defined as an emotional disorder,
especially affecting young women (there is low percentage of affected men too),
in which there is abnormal, irrational fear of putting on weight, which in
consequence causes the person to refuse completely to take nourishment. It is
extremely tricky, often chronic, and life – threatening eating disorder, which
causes the affected person to refuse to maintain “minimal body weight within 15
percent of an individual’s normal weight”.[2]
It can be said that the most striking and essential feature of the illness is a
distorted body image, causing people suffering from anorexia to perceive
themselves to be obese irrespective of their actual weight. The other salient
characteristics of the disease include intense fear of gaining weight, avoiding
food and calories at all costs, and amenorrhea (absence of menstrual cycles).
Anorexics usually suffer from extreme weight fluctuations, fatigue, stomach
ulcers and anemia. The starvation experienced by persons with anorexia nervosa
can cause damage to the vital organs such as heart or brain. Pulse rate and
blood pressure drop, furthermore people affected by the illness may experience
irregular heart rhythms or even heart failure. Malnutrition and basic
components deprivation causes calcium loss from bones, which in consequence
become brittle and prone to breakage.[3]
In addition sufferers from anorexia develop depression, hypothermia (sharp fall
of the body temperature), and lanugo (the appearance of hair over the body,
similar to the hair on a new born baby).[4]
In the bleakest scenario, people with anorexia deprived of medical treatment or
not subjected to it on time may literally starve themselves to death.
It has been noted that anorexia
nervosa is classified as the psychiatric condition characterized by the highest
mortality rates, killing up to six percent of people who have fallen into the
iron – tight clutch of the disorder. Anorexia is considered to be
“therapeutically vexing disorder”, since its determinants lie not only in
sociocultural and psychological sphere, as it has been frequently concluded,
but as it has been recently discovered, they are also rooted in biological and
genetical structures of the organism. Such discoveries partly dispel common
claims stipulating that anorexia can be viewed solely as a by – product of the 20th and the
21's century culture, as a dysfunctional western theme, a living reproduction
of the sociocultural order and demands. The problem of the disorder has been
often located within “a persuasive set of rules for living dictated by a
contemporary, very persuasive society”[5].
The relevance and truthfulness of such statements is undeniable. Just a brief
glimpse on the history, provides one with an outline how female’s bodies have
altered throughout the centuries to meet the ideals, and to imitate the
paragons of beauty launched in the particular historical periods.
It is unquestionable that the
established canons of beauty have shaped and impacted social values for ages.
About 15 to 10 thousand years ago, in the Paleolithic period, it was desirable
for women to be grossly corpulent. Figures and statues of goddesses dated back
from this period, strike with its excessive abundance of shapes. The
quintessence of Paleolithic symbol of feminine beauty is the Venus of
Willendorf, whose body is immensely fat, and whose sexual characteristics are exaggeratedly
accentuated.[6] Some historians have put
forward an argument suggesting that Paleolithic period was a time when voluptuous
female sexuality was particularly permitted and encouraged. In the Greek and
Roman period practicing sports, especially athletics was commonly widespread.
Both men and women partook in physical activities. Thus, the embodiment of
ideal female body was not overly curvy, but flexible and fit. It was desirable
for a woman to to be little “softer”, but certainly not plump and as a result
of it, the self – pronouncing of sexual features has vanished by this point. In
the Middle Ages bodily denial termed as ascetism was the only acceptable
attitude towards life, advocated by the people. Medieval art encapsulated the
canons of the ideal female body pertaining in those times perfectly: spindly
arms and legs, pallid complexion, and protruding round belly emerging
surprisingly out of skinny body. According to critics such an image of female
body was to represent purely procreation and not sensuality or sexuality. In
the Baroque era in the 1600 and 1700’s, an age of decadence and sensual
indulgence, obese women came into vogue again. Eating was no longer considered
to be sinful, and obese women stood for comfortable, sedentary and luxurious
style of living. Though baroque women were not as overweight as the Venus of Willendorf,
yet the archetype of the ideal woman was endowed with a lush and rounded body.
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s fashions accentuated slim waists, which
were “crushed” tightly with corsets to astonishingly narrow sizes, so that
women frequently suffered from internal organs distress and fainted a lot. The
epitome of the Victorian female ideal was deadly pale, frail and “consumptive”
woman.[7]
In the response to the following cultural demands as well as to the complex
sociopsychological factors involving the confinement, forced leisure of the
middle – class women, cases of anorexia had been observed fairly frequently. [8]It
was the postwar period which brought the revival of sensuality and sexuality.
The so called golden age of the late 1940’s and 50’s launched voluptuous women,
often recognized as femme fatales. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s it was
slender and waiflike women who were commonly popular. The quintessence of such
a woman was undoubtedly Twiggy. She represented a time marked by androgynous
fashion, emancipation, time when women were obtaining access to contraception,
making political and legal inroads. In any case however, it can be asserted
that the archetype of Twiggy has won the victory over the kind of sexuality
embodied in femme fatales of the 40’s for the present time.[9]
Ideal woman’s body dictated by the
current fashion is tall and strikingly slim, it resembles much the beauty of
the Victorian period and that of the early 70’s. On the basis of the cited
examples it can be seen to what extent cultural pressure, fashion can
manipulate people and stir up things generally. It also emerges that cultural
demands imposed on people in the second half of the 20’th century are
significantly responsible for the enhanced occurrence of anorexia. The
descriptions of various female ideals which were glamorized in particular
periods present glaring discrepancy between voluptuous and slender body used to
have been perceived as perfect. On the basis of this discrepancy it has been
observed that only in times when women were regarded for their aesthetic,
cultural or spiritual attributes were the cases of anorexia reported. In
periods where women were prized mainly for their biological functions and curvaceous
shapes, incidents of self – starvation were purposeless since anorexia had no
cultural ground to appear. This view is best supported by Camille Paglia, who
in her book Western Art speaks of the
two modes of treating human form: the Apollonian, which accentuates the
intellectual, aesthetic and spiritual qualities and the Chthonian which
emphasizes the biological, preservative aspects. She states that when a culture
glorifies the Apollonian and underestimates the Chthonian that eating disorders
are contracted. She believes that “It is when vital functions such as child
bearing, nursing or menstruation are perceived as contrary to a desired
feminine ideal that anorexia may be used as a means to deny a significant
aspect of the self.” As a result of it, she continues, eating disorders can be
viewed as the price paid by women for the achievements of the modern civilization.
On the basis of the already mentioned arguments it can be proved that to
certain degree anorexia is an outcome of cultural pressure since the vast
majority of people who suffer from it, develop it, in response to their desire
to fulfill a culturally imposed ideal body image which stresses thinness. [10]
It should be pointed however that
apart from cultural factors, there are other factors contributing to the
disorder. Recent research shows that there is a considerable biological
components which lead to the manifestation of the disease. “Biological origins
of anorexia range from genetic factors to neurotransmitter and hormone
imbalances”. Investigations into the etiology of anorexia show that genetics
play a significant role in predisposing a person to developing an eating
disorder.[11] First of all, it has been
observed that in people affected by anorexia or bulimia neurotransmitter levels
are abnormal. Furthermore in people with eating disorders certain hormones
functioning is atypical.[12]
Serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine have all been found to exist at abnormal
levels in individuals with anorexia.[13]
Experiments conducted on laboratory animals with serotonin show that when it is
released into either the ventromedial hypothalamus or lateral hypothalamus (
both responsible for eating behaviors and the sense of satiety) eating ceases
and this results in gradual starvation.[14]
It can be observed that, sufferers from anorexia have excessive amount of
serotonin produced. Studies also show that there is genetic predisposition for
developing anorexia. Females in a family which has a member affected with
eating disorder are more likely to than average woman to develop an eating
disorder themselves. According some studies “about half the risk of developing
anorexia is inherited.” It can be supported by the fact that identical twin
sisters were more prone to both developing an eating disorder then non –
identical twins. While majority of people put blame on the media, modern
culture, fashion and society for promoting ideal beauty as dangerously thin,
already presented arguments show that it is only a part of the reason for
eating disorders.
Studies
point out that the environmental conditions can also bear the responsibility
for developing anorexia. It appears that parents who are preoccupied with their
children appearance and weight and comment about it often provide extremely
risky environment which in turn can distribute to an eating disorder. Other
behavioural research show that parental disorders (depression, eating
disorders, and other mental problems) are often passed on their children
through this environmental, yet genetically intertwined fashion, and hence such
children are more vulnerable to obsessive dieting. Apart from the biological
factors (hormonal disturbances, genetic predispositions), psychological factors
are also inextricably intertwined with anorexia occurrence. It has been
discovered that anorexia is more likely to appear when the “ I – function”,
which means a sense of self, is not
agreement with external reality. As a result, the body presented by the I –
function is distorted and therefore perceived differently from the way others
can see it. Frequently, a person with disturbed I – function suffers from
depression, caused by constant feeling of helplessness, hopelessness, and
excessively low self – esteem regardless of their appearance and actual
position in life. Scientists claim that the reason of I – function’s distortion
may range from genetic to environmental impacts.
While enlisting potential sources of
anorexia it should not be forgotten to mention triggers of the disorder. The
occurrence of anorexia can be triggered by a shocking, traumatic event like
death, divorce, unsymapathetical comment from someone or by some devastating
experience like sexual abuse, family problems and by other stressful yet
detrimental situations.[15]
Some research suggest that personal temperament is fractionally responsible for
the vulnerability to eating disorders. It has been evidenced that some
personality types for example: obsessive - compulsive, sensitive – avoidant are
more susceptible to anorexia than others. [16]
On the basis of what has already
been discussed it would be misconception to claim that anorexia is a disorder
solely reflecting current preoccupation with thinness and personal control in a
context of food abundance. Cultural pressure is unquestionably essential factor
in creating body image which necessitates having recourse to diets and nutritial
deprivation, however biological, psychological and family factors are equally
important. The second question: Is anorexia a creation of modern civilization?
remains still unanswered however. Although cases of anorexia were noted much
earlier, it was not until Victorian period that the name anorexia had been
coined and ascribed to the mental illness resulting in self – starvation. It
was Sir William Gull (1816 – 1890), physician of Queen Victoria who best
described anorexia nervosa and invented its name.[17]
Contrary to the commonly held belief that anorexia is a disorder of our times,
it should be said that it is relatively “old” disease. A number of scholarly
works which were published in the last few decades present cases of voluntary
self – starvation dating back many centuries. Interestingly, the frequency of
the acts of willful self denial vary in different periods of history
considerably. Judging on it, it is easy to discover the correlation between
cultural demands and the frequency of anorexia occurrence: “certain
combinations of social, economic and cultural factors may have facilitated or
inhabited the expression of psychopathology through anorexic behaviour.”[18]
The brief description of female
ideals which I have already provided should not push one into believing that
anorexia appeared as late as in Victorian era. In fact, first cases of
purposeful self – starvation appeared in classical Greece. These early abstainers,
were usually male hermits who abjured the entire material world. Dismissing
bodily needs was a part of a ascetics, which various gnostic sects advocated in
the wake of the decline of independent city states which were submerged into
large empires. The Greek scholar Dodds
(1970) postulates that as citizens lost their sense of public effectiveness in
the government of the “polis”, they diverted their desire for control to the
private sphere, including their corporal selves. Here willful self – starvation
can be viewed as manifestation of dissatisfaction, disappointment and as a
means of rebellion towards the world. It was at this time that Eastern
religions influenced European through the philosophy of gnosticism, which
proclaims a dichotomy between spirit and body. The body, according to it, is a
part of material world and should be treated as evil, while the soul imprisoned
in that body, is to be considered holy. The depreciation of the body was not
strictly confined to male recluses in those remote times, but seems to have
been adopted by wealthy Roman ladies later on[19].
For example, St. Jerome
became the spiritual leader of a group of women, many of whom starved
themselves to death in 383 A.D.,
thereby becoming the first recorded victims of anorexia.
With the fall of the Roman Empire and gnosticism, there was also decline of
self – imposed fasting. During the ensuing “Dark Ages” cases of anorexia are
hard to be found. The most reasonable explanation of it can be the fact that in
Middle Ages, everyday life reverted into its most basic biological level with a
premium placed on female, physical qualities and procreative capability, as the
population had to face up to recurrent plagues, and attacks by marauding
armies. In contrast to the relative rarity of anorexia during the “Dark ages”,
anorexic behaviour seemed to have reached almost epidemic proportions during
the Renaissance, particularly in the Southern Europe where urban centers, and
their concomitant sophistication and wealth flourished. Most cases of anorexia
occurred due to religious reasons, and the willfully fasting women were called
“holy anorexics’ since they castigated their bodies, and sought refuge in
religious orders. [20]
The trickle of cases of anorexia
swelled to a respectable stream of self – starvation in the Victorian period. The
reason is well – known: Victorian ideal of beauty imposed on women the
necessity of being slim and ethereal. What is more, at this time the industrial
revolution produced a return of wealthy and urbane middle class with cultural
and aesthetic aspirations. Numbers of cases dropped during the world wars and
the depression, only to reemerge with alarming frequency in the late sixties.
This very cursory overview of the
relative frequency of self starvation may also reveal a pattern regarding
social factors which appear to influence its use to express deeper
psychological issues. It is of interest that self starvation was unknown in the
Western civilization until the appearance of gnosticism which accentuated not
only the dichotomy of mind and body but also the relative evil hidden in the
body founding its vent in the bodily desires. The denial and privation of the
corporeal self seems to emerge only after it has been separated and placed in
the opposition to the spiritual self. It has been observed, that even today
cultures which do not make this distinction and regard the body highly are not
affected by eating disorders. It has been put forward that another contributing
factor to anorexia is the creation of an affluent, prosperous society where
biological survival is guaranteed. This is best supported by the fact that
those historical epochs which were characterized by privation did not exhibit
cases of anorexia. This theory can be additionally augmented by certain
regularities observed by Selvini Palozzoli (1985). He found that during The
Second World War, in Italy,
when food was scarce, no cases of anorexia had been reported. Only as the
economy recovered in the post war period did such disorder start to be noted
again.[21]
The following examples mixed with a
fraction of history and medical information, indicate that anorexia is not a
new disorder since it can be traced back many centuries ago. Self starvation
stemmed not only from cultural and fashion demands, it was frequently dictated
by philosophical attitudes, religious beliefs, what is more it was giving vent
to rebellion and desperate act of self expression frequently. I believe that
the phenomenon of anorexia has existed in almost all epochs, appearing
periodically and then diminishing again. Anorexia did exist in the past but was
not as rampant as it is nowadays partly because of the fact that people in the
Victorian period for instance, were not so much mesmerized with screaming
commercials, advertisements and emaciated models, as we are at present. Mass
media often flood people with harmful contents, contents which distorts
perception and filters through mind. As a consequence, the 1980’s saw the
social epidemic of anorexia, and since then it has multiplied tremendously, so
that in 2000 there was over eight million people affected by eating disorders.[22]
In my opinion mass media impact and cultural pressure play extremely important
role in creating and augmenting fashion for obsessive dieting. However, on the
basis of what has been mentioned before it must be explained that the causes of
anorexia can go many different ways. Multifaceted physical, psychological and
biological factors contribute to the disorder equally. Physical, emotional
traumas, loss and grief, brain chemistry, physiological effects of dieting,
copying styles are altogether responsible for anorexia occurrences.
The Bibliography
1. http://www.anred.com/causes.html
2.
http://familydoctor.org/063.xml
3.
http://www.nus.edu.sg/osa/guidance/selfhelp/eatingdisorders04.html
4.
http://www.stumptous.com/thoughts.html
5. http://www.cyberpsych.org/pdg/pdghist.htm
6.
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro98/202s98-paper3/Hirst3.html
7.
http://www.essays.cc/free_essays/e1/vrk35.shtml
8.
http://www.cpa-apc.org/Publications/Archives/PDF/1997/Mar/goldblom.pdf
9.
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro03/web2/arutigliano.html
10.
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/anorexia_signs_symptoms_causes_treatment.htm
[1] http://www.anred.com/causes.html
[2] http://familydoctor.org/063.xml
[3] http://www.helpguide.org/mental/anorexia_signs_symptoms_causes_treatment.htm
2 http://www.nus.edu.sg/osa/guidance/selfhelp/eatingdisorders04.html
3 http://www.cpa-apc.org/Publications/Archives/PDF/1997/Mar/goldblom.pdf
[6] http://www.stumptous.com/thoughts.html
[7] http://www.stumptous.com/thoughts.html
[9] http://www.stumptuous.com/thoughts.html
[10] http://www.cyberpsych.org/pdg/pdghist.htm
[11] http://serendip.brymawr.edu/bb/neuro03/web2/arutiglian/html
[12] http://www.cyberpsych.org/pdg/pdghist.htm
[14]
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro98/202s98-paper3/Hirst3.html
[16] http://www.nus.edu.sg/osa/guidance/selfhelp/eatingdisorders04.html
1http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?Aktion=ShowFulltext&ProduktNr=223840&Ausgabe=230584&ArtikelNr=82033
[18] http://www.cyberpsych.org/pdg/pdghist.htm
[19] http://www.cyberpsych.org/pdg/pdghist.htm
[21] http://www.cyberpsych.org/pdg/pdghist.htm
[22] http://www.essays.cc/free_essays/e1/vrk35.shtml
piątek, 27 października 2017
Best homemade smoothie ever
I have just made a smoothie tonight. It came out so good that I decided to share my newly-invented receipe on my blog. The smothie is rich, delicious, packed with vitamins and nutrients and wonderfully refreshing. If you care about the state of your body, mind and soul; you should know that food is energy and frequency. We are what we eat. If you want to have gorgeously smooth skin, clear mind and soul, you should eat and drink healthy. I like to experiment both in the kitchen and in life. I do not like following the recipes and the rules. My new smoothie is transcedental. It is inspirational. It smells with roses and freshenss of pink watermelons. It will catapult your senses to a new dimension. When I drink it, I feel sun rays and gentle wind. I can see rose gardens and coconut trees.
Here is the recipe
Ingredients:
- Half of a fresh, middle-sized watermelon
- 1 kiwi
- 1 pear
- 3 plums
- 2 tablespoons of rose water
- splash of honey
- 2 glasses of coconut milk
Dump the ingredients in the smoothie maker. Hit "blend" button. Make sure there are no lumps in the drink. It ought to be velvety. Done! Enjoy the transcendental watermeloney-rosey freshness.
środa, 18 października 2017
Gdy zrypią Ci życie, boisz się kochać
Gdy zrypią Ci życie, boisz się kochać
Moj golf mokry od łez,
W misce podgnite grejpfruty,
Których czasu nie miałam obrać i zjeść,
Gdy umysł cały zatruty.
Zatruty smutkiem i żalem,
Lękiem, że w nicość zastygnę,
Losu własnego nię będę kowalem,
Od kochania całkiem odwyknę.
A pragnę Ciebie tak mocno,
całą swą duszą i ciałem,
Listy ślę do Wszechświata
By wlał we mnie odwagę i wiarę.
Odwagę by miłość Ci wyznać,
by strach odjąć przed nieznanym,
By przestać wreszcie uciekać
Przed namiętności oceanem.
A pragnę Ciebie tak mocno,
całą swą duszą i ciałem,
Listy ślę do Wszechświata
By wlał we mnie odwagę i wiarę.
Odwagę by miłość Ci wyznać,
by strach odjąć przed nieznanym,
By przestać wreszcie uciekać
Przed namiętności oceanem.
Autorstwa własnego
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